, louisiana, south of new orleans tonight. mark, tell us about the efforts under way to avert disaster in the region. >> reporter: it's a massive response, katie, because it has to be, and right now, what feels most ominous to everybody involved is the stiff breeze out here, the sort of breeze that could soon bring waves of oil right into communities leek this one. mother nature's not cooperating. with shifting winds, hope is burning away faster than the spilled oil. the massive spill, 600 miles around, is about to reach louisiana's fragile coast, its leading edge just three miles from the community of pass-a-loutre, an environmental disaster. >> we have now accumulated over 18,000 barrels of oily water, and we continue to skim, even though the weather forecast suggests that those activities will have to cease soon. >> reporter: response crews spent the night burning off some of the thickest layers of oil before high winds put a stop to it. british petroleum, which owns the destroyed rig, has mobilized more than 1100 workers, 75 vessels, and 400,000 feet of boom trying to corral the oi
